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This dissertation explores British non-fiction films and radio broadcasts about the natural world from the 1920s to the 1930s. During the years between the First and Second World Wars, natural history films and radio programmes flooded into Britain’s cinemas and its airwaves, at a moment when the relationship between humans and the natural world was undergoing a profound transformation. Meanwhile, new methods of conveying knowledge like film and radio were hailed as potential solutions to the needs of an expanding system of formal education. My dissertation responds to a key historical question that unites historians of science, the media, modern Britain, and its environments: how were people’s experiences of the natural world shaped by the types of information that they consumed? The dissertation is divided into two sections. The first three chapters look at natural history films, while the remaining two examine BBC broadcasts. I argue that mass media science in this period was characterised by ‘intermediality’, with ideas and individuals flowing freely across multiple formats. By exploring the production, circulation, and consumption of different forms of mass media, I also argue that ideas about the natural world were ‘co-produced’ by a wide range of historical actors and processes: mainstream cinema culture, educational philosophies, scientists, teachers, filmmakers, radio producers, animals, plants, and chemicals all shaped the depiction of nature on screen and on air. Paying close attention to film and radio audiences, in particular child audiences, I show how the popularisation of natural history and biology came to be defined by the appeal to people’s ‘everyday’ experience., Wolfson Foundation Postgraduate Scholarship, Emmanuel College Cambridge, Jesus College Cambridge, Centre for History and Economics, DAAD

This study investigated the effect of instructional videos and real-life activities on the mathematical achievement and attitude of developmental students. The study also investigated the attitude of developmental students towards learning mathematics through instructional videos and real-life activities. The study was conducted at an urban community college with transitional mathematics classes. The four mathematics classes in the study received various combinations of real-life activities, instructional videos, and traditional teaching while studying basic concepts such as decimal place value, percentages, and fractions. Pre-and post-tests were conducted to measure student achievement. Attitude scales, surveys, and interviews were used to measure attitude changes. Results showed that, overall, the mathematics achievement of the classes receiving consistent exposure to videos and real-life activities was greater than classes receiving only some of the special instructional treatments. Students interviewed believed that instructional videos and real-life activities improved their understanding of the mathematical concepts involved in the study.

The purpose of this study was to investigate student learning experiences with online instructional videos. Drawing upon qualitative interviews and user experience talk-throughs, this paper argues that students do not necessarily experience online instructional videos (and other types of course content) as discrete elements, or differentiate them from other aspects of the course. The implications are that students have significant agency in these online environments and their meaning-making of instructional content may not align with designers’ intentions. In addition, the times and contexts in which students view instructional videos shifts (e.g. between home and commuting). The emerging findings have design implications related to the creation of learning environments in online spaces, such as fully integrating content within the instructional design of a course and focusing on the digital contexts in which educational content is embedded.

In the YouTube era, data centers need new outreach mechanisms to raise awareness of their services and instruct their clientele in the use of data resources. At Rutgers University Libraries, the Data Librarian is creating a series of video tutorials, titled "Data Snapshots", on major data resources for posting on YouTube, blogs, and university web sites. These are integrated into research guides and the newly created RutgersData blog (rutgersdata.wordpress.com), which is a news resource for the Rutgers data community. Issues in scripting, capturing, editing and manipulating the videos using various software will be discussed. The expansion of a virtual presence for data services through chat consultations and design of the blog is driven by the dispersed environment at Rutgers University, where only one dedicated data librarian serves a student population of 50,000 spread across multiple campuses. Feedback from users is also being gathered to improve design of services and guide future efforts., Presentation for IASSIST/IFDO Annual Conference, Tampere, Finland, May 27, 2009